Any idiot can face a crisis; it's this day-to-day living that wears you out.

The line contrasts the drama of acute catastrophe with the slow attrition of ordinary life. Chekhov’s point is that “heroism” in a single crisis can be comparatively easy—adrenaline, clarity, and social scripts kick in—whereas the repetitive demands of work, illness, relationships, and minor disappointments steadily exhaust a person. Read in a Chekhovian key, it also undercuts romantic notions of suffering: the real test of character is not grand tragedy but endurance, patience, and moral steadiness amid the banal. The aphorism captures a modern, psychological realism central to Chekhov’s fiction and drama, where meaning is often found in the unremarkable pressures of everyday existence.